The bells are jingling, the lights are twinkling, and the tinsel is glittering…the festive season has begun!
Christmas is my favorite time of the year. It’s not about the presents (I love gifting and receiving, don’t get me wrong!), it’s a lot about family and friends, but for me, my favourite part of the holiday season…the Christmas decorations! I love them in all their glittery, and sometimes tacky, utterly flamboyant way. I loved helping Mum decorate the Christmas tree. Every year we wold buy a few new decorations to add to the collection. My mother has some truly beautiful decorations, as well as some lovely handmade ones. Walking into my parent’s house at Christmas is like walking into a Christmas shop. Mum’s decorations don’t just stop at the tree. She has a multitude of ornaments, figurines, softies, serving ware, and it’s all out on display.
The first thing I bought when Tim and I decided to buy our own place was a microwave and a large faux Christmas Tree. I decided that each year I would do a different theme or colour scheme and only buy decorations that suited that scheme. As such I now possess every conceivable bauble colour known to man! Some of my themes have been classic like Red and White and Metallic, others have been a little different, like the year I did a Tropical theme and made a star topper out of sticks and shells.
This year my theme is handmade. My intention is to decorate our tree with mostly handmade decorations, with the odd bauble thrown in for good measure and to fill the tree up. I intend to get Matilda to help me make some decorations. She loves doing craft and last year she enjoyed ‘helping’ mum decorate the tree. By help, I mean watch while Mummy did it all while singing Christmas Carols!
As fortune would have it, the lovely Emma Jones of Vintage Sewing Box and I started talking a couple of months ago about hosting a sew-along together. We threw out many ideas, but both of us gravitated towards the idea of hosting an EPP Christmas Decoration Sew-along. We decided we would each design some free EPP ornament patterns to be released individually on our blogs and YouTube channels.
I thoroughly enjoyed designing my ornaments. We had decided we would do two each, but once I started the ideas kept flowing and I designed five in total…
Hexie Christmas Tree
Hexie Flower Ornament
Stars (with variations)
Mini Pennant
Mini Bunting
I experimented with different embroidery and stitching details on my ornaments which I think really adds something special to each one. The fabric choice is endless with these decorations, from traditional Christmas colours, Christmas novelty prints, or even Liberty and floral fabrics. These decorations are great for using up scraps, so just about anything goes. You could also use different threads such as satin or metallic thread, and embellish with beads and bells.
You can find the PDF pattern and printable paper templates below. The pattern includes basic instructions, pattern graphs, and photos. It also has printable paper templates for all of the designs.
Christmas Ornaments Collection One – Printable Paper Templates 23.06.21
EPP Xmas Ornaments Collection One – 23.06.21
If you don’t want to cut your own templates, you can purchase a pre-cut paper template kit HERE. The kit contains enough templates to make one each of the designs shown in the pattern.
You can find the video tutorial on my YouTube channel.
I do hope you join Emma and me in the sew-along. It is running from November 24 to December 24 on Instagram. Join in and follow along by using #eppxmasornamentsal
Happy Stitching Lovelies
Miss Leela x
